Page 5

“D on’t let go,” Reeni told Damon and Trevor, her hand still atop the server. “I really need to learn more about electronics, don’t I?” she asked Trevor, with an agonized groan.

“Yep, you sure do,” he agreed, with a smile, “if only to help explain what you’re hearing, seeing, and feeling.”

Bullard walked closer, his hand on his hips, looking as if he wouldn’t take no for an answer and snapped, “What just happened?”

Levi came back online, appearing on the big screen in this room. “Looks as if you fixed it somehow, so I gather you found the backup?”

Everybody turned and looked at Reeni.

She sighed. “No, it wasn’t the backup. At the moment I’m holding it steady, with the help of Damon’s and Trevor’s energy. So you other guys need to find that backup.” She turned and glared at the other men. “Soon, people, so don’t quit looking.”

Realizing that something else had to be done here, the men were galvanized into action and scrambled very quickly. Half a minute later, someone shouted, “Okay, we’ve got the program back up and running again.”

Trevor called back, “We’ll let you know in a second if it’ll hold or not.”

She frowned at him.

Trevor nodded. “The three of us should reverse our link, as we withdraw our energy. Damon, you first. Now me. And, Reeni, disconnect from it,” he said. “I’ll hold you steady, if need be.”

She smiled, and he watched as all their energy was uncoupled from the server disk.

When all the cell phones remained quiet this time, Bullard’s men in the room gave a collective sigh. One guy shared, “Okay, we’re still functioning. Levi, are you seeing it? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, we have a visual. Everything looks okay now.” Levi went silent for a moment, and then he exploded. “What the hell was that all about?”

Bullard groaned. “If I had answers for you, I would be a whole lot happier, but Terk’s people tell me that what I apparently have is a ghost,” he added, with a tone of disgust in his voice.

Levi repeated, “A ghost?”

“Yeah. You’ll have to talk to Terk about that,” Bullard grumbled. “I’ve got somebody here who says I’ve got an electronic ghost in my system, and now that we’ve seen our satellite nearly crash, I don’t have a clue what to think.” With that said, he stormed out of the room, looking more than pissed.

Damon walked over to the big-screen TV, so Levi could see him. “Hi, Levi. It’s Damon. I’m over here with Trevor and Reeni,” he explained. “She sounded the alarm, and she just stabilized the system, until they could regain control by rebooting it with the backup disk. But, yeah, we’ve got a problem here, and it’s a problem that’ll require our particular set of talents.”

Levi shook his head. “Whatever that ghost is about, you keep him over there. We sure as hell don’t need that problem here.”

“None of us do, no matter where we are,” Damon noted. “So, yeah, we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

At that, Reeni stepped in front of the screen and smiled. “Hey, Levi.”

He stared at her. “Reeni, as in Tangerine? I haven’t seen you in…”

She smiled. “You haven’t seen me since I was little. It’s been ages, I know.”

“Yeah, but it’s not as if I could ever mistake you, not even more than a decade later.”

She burst out laughing. “Very true.… Unfortunately I don’t think Bullard likes me much.” She had such a sad tone to her voice.

Levi shook his head. “I don’t believe that for a moment. You’ve probably completely confounded him, confused him, and destroyed his sense of calm, that’s all. Give him a chance to adjust, and he’ll be back in fighting form soon.”

“Maybe so. I guess I should be used to it by now.”

At that, Levi’s face twisted in understanding. “No better at home, huh ?”

“No, no better at home. It’ll never be any better. You and I both know that.”

“Sadly, if it’s still not improved at this point, it’s quite possible that things won’t ever improve. In that case, you’re far better off with a group like Terk’s, who understand who you are and what you’re up to,” he suggested. “Keep that in mind.”

“Yeah, though Terk didn’t send me over here,” she clarified. “I just showed up on Bullard’s doorstep, without any warning.”

He stared at her in surprise, then he started to laugh. “Honey, you are so lucky they even let you in. Those guys aren’t known for letting strangers in to tell them about threats to their system.”

“They didn’t accept me until Trevor and Damon showed up, but I was right. Their electricity had been going crazy. I didn’t help things though, as I have this tendency to just blurt out information. I don’t couch the news very well, apparently.”

He chuckled. “No, you don’t have filters, or at least you never used to. I always really loved that about you because you are exactly who and what you appear to be. I would much rather deal with someone like that, than a lot of others in our society who aren’t straightforward at all.” They talked for a few more minutes, and then he ended the transmission.

She stepped away from the screen, feeling so much better. She turned around to see a half-dozen faces frowning at her, and, sure enough, Bullard was right in the middle of it.

“You know Levi?” he asked.

She nodded. “I do, but it’s been a long time.” She didn’t elaborate. “I have friends all over the world, but I seem to be pretty good at making enemies too.”

Bullard sighed. “I’m definitely not your enemy,” he stated, “but you are challenging to anybody’s belief system.”

She nodded. “Yep, I sure am,” she replied, without a second thought. She’d never been one to sugarcoat anything. “Apparently my parents think so too.” Then she shrugged and smiled. “Sorry, I should be used to it by now, but that disgust or dismay, whatever you want to call it, it still takes a bit of getting used to.”

Several women walked into the room just then, who had clearly heard the whole conversation. One of them she recognized from earlier, Bullard’s wife.

“Nobody has the right to make you feel less than who you are,” Leia declared. “I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but, if you can help us in any way, we would all appreciate it very much.”

Reeni smiled. “Thank you for that.… I don’t suppose there’s any more of that coffee, is there?”

From the far corner of the room, Dave laughed out loud. “Absolutely. The coffee’s always on around here. Come on with me. Let’s go get you a cup. Have you eaten?”

“No, I haven’t had anything in a while,” she admitted.

“It’s been pretty intense, and I bet your blood sugar could use a boost. Let’s see if we can find something for you.”

“Thank you. If it weren’t for these two helping, I might be in a very different state right now,” she admitted, turning to Damon and Trevor. “Thank you for stepping up, both of you.”

“You know, anybody in our business does that without question,” Trevor shared. “You could have asked for it earlier.”

She shrugged. “I’m not used to working with anybody. I don’t do this work intentionally. It’s just when that feeling becomes something that I can’t ignore, I end up in these situations that are more foolish than sane, and people don’t really understand or appreciate it,” she explained, with a sideways glance at Bullard.

He stared at her as she walked past, heading toward the coffeepot. When Trevor came up behind her, he looped an arm over her shoulders, turned her slightly and gave her a kiss on her forehead. “Good job.”

“Yet, all we did was postpone the inevitable,” she muttered.

At that, Bullard must have heard her because he suddenly roared, “What?”

Her shoulders slumped, and she stared up at Trevor. “See? I have no filters. How do I ever get people to like me if all I do is say things that upset them?”

Trevor grinned. “In fairness, it is his security system. You put a stop to the oncoming disaster so, of course, he’s a little upset to find that it’s not over. It’s hard to defend yourself against things you can’t even begin to understand. He just wants his system to be working so his people are safe and to know this won’t be repeated.”

“Sure.” She turned to Damon. “When you were attached to me, did you feel it?”

Damon nodded slowly. “I’m not sure what I felt, but yes.” Then he shook, as if he wanted to ward off something. “I’ve never had that before.”

“Never had what?” she asked curiously.

“That weird… electrical energy coursing through me, and the loud crackling, followed by that sense of openness, emptiness.”

“Oh, so you got that much,” she crowed in delight. “That’s excellent, so you can tell Bullard that I’m not crazy.”

Trevor grinned over at Bullard, who stared at Reeni as if she were something completely alien, which she was. “Just remember that she comes from the heart.” Trevor smiled.

Now detached from his side, she found her way to the kitchen, where Dave made her a big salad and dished up some hot soup. As she sat there at the cozy informal kitchen table, inhaling the food, she still felt her energy draining quickly. Frowning at that, she ate a little faster but realized she was still losing the battle. She tried eating still faster yet again. When Trevor appeared, she groaned. “Can you give me some energy?” She moaned. “I feel as if I’m fading.” He smiled, placed his hand on her shoulder, and she felt his energy surging through her. She straightened happily, then flared at him. “Don’t give me so much that you’re in trouble though.”

“Doesn’t happen that way, remember?”

“You say that, but it seems to work that way for me,” she muttered.

Dave looked over at them inquiringly.

Trevor explained, “She lost a lot of energy taking on that energy jolt from the computer, so she’s trying to eat faster to regain what she needs. So far, it’s not working.”

Dave stepped up and asked, “What kind of food does she need?”

Trevor turned to her.

She shrugged. “Oh, I would say protein would be normal, but starchy carbs would help too.”

He turned and sliced thick slabs of ham on a cutting board and added bread. “I have potato salad here somewhere.” Soon he brought that out of the massive fridge.

In a matter of minutes, she was completely surrounded by food, and, sighing happily, she went to town, eating some of all of it.

As the others came in, they stopped and took one look, amazed. Bullard shook his head at the amount of the food in front of her, plus the way she was digging into it all. “Good God,” he muttered.

Trevor smiled and explained, “She burned through a lot of energy deflecting that intrusion, so, before she collapses, she needs some sustenance.”

Bullard nodded. “Get her whatever she needs,” he declared. “I certainly didn’t mean to be less than friendly at her arrival,” he conceded, with a headshake, “but some of this is pretty far out there.”

“It absolutely is unusual,” Trevor agreed. “That doesn’t mean it’s not valid.”

“No, obviously it is. I’m just not sure how much of our world is ready for these things.”

“Oh, I don’t think it is,” she mumbled around the food. “Most people don’t see it coming and don’t even want to think about it. I get it, but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with the information—other than tell you about it—not when I have it burning a hole in my brain.”

“Why your brain though?” Damon asked, looking at her. “Do you have any connection to this person?”

She stared at him and then shrugged. “I don’t think so, but I’m not sure. I don’t know anybody who does electricity like this.”

“Do you know other people with rare abilities?” Leia asked, her tone curious and yet not in any way judgmental.

Reeni considered that question for a moment and then shrugged. “I know people who can hijack cars, can get them started without keys, don’t even need to hotwire them. A couple of them I’ve had to put in jail, which has been a little stressful for them, I’m sure.… One guy could open safes without even touching the locks,” she noted, with a shrug. “Of course, not everybody appreciates the fact that I can see what they’re doing or can anticipate what their next move will be, so it pisses them off when they find out.”

Trevor studied her. “Somebody opening a safe without touching it is an interesting possibility. That’s just fascinating, when you think about it.”

“Psychokinesis. Yet it’s all just energy, right?” she stated, looking at him. “So, as long as they get the right vibration, the safe will open.”

Trevor stared at her. “Yet you’re telling me that you can’t see a lot of this other stuff that’s just energy.”

She smiled. “Seeing it is one thing, but acting on it?… That’s very different,” she stated. “If I’m in the zone, then I can see a lot of stuff that I don’t really understand and that I don’t really work with. I saw a lot more when you touched me, and that really surprised me.”

“That’s what happens when you get around other energy workers,” Damon noted. “The minute you work with somebody else, you can get a lot more energy, a lot more strength, a lot more awareness from it too, picking up more gifts.” He looked down at the food in front of her and asked mildly, “Are you into sharing that?”

She looked up and smiled at Damon. “Absolutely.” Then she frowned at Dave. “Did I take too much? I don’t want to eat you all out of house and home.”

“No, you’re fine,” Dave said, from the kitchen sink, washing up some pots and pans. “We keep things pretty well stocked around here.”

With that, Damon sat down and started to fill a plate for himself.

When Trevor joined them, and everybody else just stood around and watched them eat, Bullard said, “This energy work really does affect you guys, doesn’t it?”

Damon nodded. “It does. Sometimes more than others. I was surprised at this level today,” he admitted, looking over at her. “That was a huge drain of energy.”

She shrugged. “We stabilized the system.” Then she stopped and chuckled. “It was more than just stabilizing. I booted him out, which might piss him right off.” She frowned. “I’m not sure what else I was supposed to do, but sometimes I have a tendency to upset people when I do these things. I don’t want to make you angry, Bullard, but he might come back more pissed off than ever.”

As the room stared in shock, Bullard asked cautiously, not sure whether he would like the answer to his own question, “What does that mean exactly?”

She saw the look on his face and groaned. “If he’s intent on doing damage here, he’ll likely try another attack. I can’t be sure though.” She wondered if she should say anything more and then decided there wasn’t a good reason to not share it. “If he does, it’s likely to be much worse next time.”

*

Trevor wanted to laugh. It was so completely and utterly like Reeni to totally ignore them, while plowing through massive amounts of food. He nudged her. “You can’t drop a bombshell like that and not explain yourself.”

She blinked at him several times, then looked at the rest of them, staring at her. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh ,” Bullard repeated in exasperation. “A little more information, please.”

“That would be nice,” she noted, “but having already booted him out to save your satellite, I couldn’t really get much more information, now could I?”

“And if you hadn’t booted him out?”

“Your satellite would have fallen, for one,” she stated simply. “So I guess I wouldn’t have gotten any information anyway.”

At that, Trevor burst out laughing. Bullard glared at him, but Trevor could only smile. “Give her a chance to sort it out,” he suggested.

Bullard groaned, then grabbed a slab of bread off the platter. “I don’t know why I’m eating, except that my stress level is off the charts. So don’t mind me while I munch.” And he sat down beside her and tucked into the food too.

Trevor was a little surprised, but then remembered how it took people a while to warm up to Reeni. Yet, once they got there, they tended to collect around her. Trevor wasn’t sure that Bullard was aware of it or that he even understood it was a possibility. However, as everybody else slowly took up seats in the kitchen, Trevor realized just how much power she wielded. And, all the while, she had no idea.

He looked over at Damon, who was even now processing the information in his head, an intent expression on his face. “Any ideas?” Trevor asked Damon.

“No, all I can say is that I think she is right. Somebody was utilizing energy to mess up Bullard’s satellite, which is very important to all of you here, and to Terk and Levi too, since neither has their own satellite.” Trevor turned to Bullard. “Did anybody not get a satellite because of you? Did somebody want to service the satellite, and you wouldn’t let him? Did somebody want to go halfsies with you on your satellite or something like that? I’m just trying to understand why someone would target the satellite.”

“Because it’s the mainstay of our business,” Bullard stated. “If they wanted to knock me off the business map—or off the physical map too, I guess—that would be one hell of a way to do it.” He looked back at the map, up on the big screen in this room as well. “I’ll head over to that apartment today.”

“No, you will not,” Damon declared in a tone that brooked no argument.

Trevor hid his smile, as he watched the consternation flood Bullard’s expression.

Bullard, not accustomed to being argued with, glared at Damon.

Damon explained, “Trevor and I will go. Maybe we’ll even take Reeni with us, but we need to go in covertly and see what energy is floating around that place. We don’t need you to go in there with a sledgehammer,” he added, with a smirk.

Bullard continued to glare at him, but Damon smiled. “Yeah, I do remember what you’re like, and this case requires a bit of finesse. In the meantime, you make a list of people with a grudge against you, as many as you can possibly come up with. Then your guys can run them down and see where they’re at, what they’re doing, and just what the mood is with them,” Damon suggested. “We’ll need those names, so we can take a look at them too.”

“Do you care about the names?” Reeni asked him. “Or are you more concerned about the energy around the names?”

Damon smiled at her. “Very good. You got there quickly. So, yeah, that’s exactly what we need, the names on paper so we can get a feel for their energy, an idea of their state of mind.”

At that, Bullard snorted. “What the hell happened to our world if this is how you guys investigate?”

“It’s not how we investigate,” Damon clarified. “Still, we might knock off a few names from the list, without having to lift a finger, so we can move forward more efficiently,” he explained. “We don’t have time to waste before there’s another attack.” He looked over at Reeni. “Are you okay to come to the apartment?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I can do that. I don’t think anybody will be there though.” She stared off in the distance.

Damon nodded. “I don’t think so either. Regardless we need to see the energy remnants.”

At that, Bullard spoke up. “I’ll go with you.” His voice was determined, and there was no give in it.

Damon and Trevor shared a glance and nodded in understanding. Damon shook his head at Bullard. “One of your men can go—but not you.”

Bullard glared at him.

“No, this is targeted at you,” Damon snapped, “so you have to watch your home base. Send one of your men with us, and we’ll stay in touch.”

Bullard had to be happy with that. When his wife, Leia, wrapped an arm around his shoulders and smiled at him, he sighed. “Fine,” he muttered, “but I would much rather be out there in the field.”

“We all understand that because we all feel the same way,” Reeni shared, a hard glint in her gaze. “This isn’t the time.”

“If this isn’t the time, what time is it?” Bullard muttered.

“It’s time for whoever this is to know that we won’t just do what they want us to do,” she shared.

“Will you stop them?” he asked, but no mockery was in his tone this time. There was almost a curiosity, as if to see what she would say.

“I will if I can,” she said. “It also depends on how willing you are to let me into your system. I’ll need complete access.” The look of horror on his face had her laughing. “See? An awful lot is out there that you don’t really know is happening.” She pointed her fork at him. “Even the thought of letting me loose in your system is enough to give you the heebie-jeebies.”

“ Heebie-jeebies ,” he repeated, with an ironic tone, “is hardly a scientific term. Knowing you have no background or experience in electronics is enough to give anybody the heebie-jeebies ,” he declared, with an eyeroll.

“Yeah, but I’m not there to touch your electronics, not physically,” she pointed out, with a sigh. “That’s the part you must remember. I’m in your electronics energetically. I’m one with your electronics energetically,” she said, “but I’m not physically touching your electronics.”

And, with that brain twister, she went back to eating.